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A nurse standing at the ready, wearing scrubs with a MedicAlert ID attached.
Inside the ER: Nurses, staff frustrated as struggling youths languish in hospital emergency wings with no solutions in sight

Inside the busy pediatric emergency room, doctors and nurses whiz down the hallway, barely aware of the teenager peering at them curiously through a small window. For about a month, the boy has lived behind locked metal doors at the hospital. The hallway is his only view of the outside world. He doesn’t see sunlight, get exercise or have access to education. Two other youths occupy rooms near him, but they seldom interact. Each room has just a bed, a chair and a television hung on the wall behind plexiglass.

Prince George’s schools CEO recommends delaying closure of some schools

Prince George’s County Schools CEO Monica E. Goldson recommended delaying the consolidation of two elementary schools Wednesday, after parents pushed back against an earlier boundary proposal that would have closed four campuses by next school year. Goldson’s recommendation came as the system reaches its final steps in revising its school boundaries in an effort to balance enrollment in different parts of the county. Some schools — particularly in the northern part of the county — have struggled with overcrowding, and more students are projected to enroll in the school system in the coming years.

Reel life or real life? New film ‘Tár’ appears to borrow from former Baltimore Symphony conductor Marin Alsop’s biography

“Tár,” the buzzy new feature film starring Cate Blanchett about a pioneering — and predatory — female classical music conductor, has become an unwelcome and troubling distraction for Marin Alsop, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s music director laureate. The movie is entirely fictitious, as the writer-director Todd Field makes clear.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Ocean City Voters To Elect Three Council Members; Q&A With Council Candidates

The field is set for an intriguing Ocean City municipal election next Tuesday with four candidates vying for three open seats, including two incumbents, meaning there will be at least one new face joining the council. Mayor Rick Meehan is unopposed and will remain in his position. Councilman Lloyd Martin did not file for re-election, ending a two-decade run on the council including a long stint as council president.

Montgomery College’s new center adds more learning opportunities to ‘East County’

A Maryland student’s dream of working as a nurse became one step closer to reality following an event that announced the opening date of Montgomery College’s East County Education Center. During Wednesday’s presentation in Silver Spring — where school officials detailed plans to offer for-credit and non-credit classes at the new center — student Nneka Ndubisi met Anthony Stahl, the CEO of Adventist HealthCare White Oak Medical Center.

Read More: WTOP
Thousands more Howard County residents can now take advantage of Aging in Place Tax Credit

About 5,000 more Howard County households will soon be able to take advantage of the Aging in Place Tax Credit, thanks to rule changes passed last month by the County Council and signed by the county executive. The tax credit was enacted by the Maryland General Assembly in 2017 to encourage older adults to “age in place” in their longtime homes. The state law requires that a resident age 65 or older reside in the same home for a number of consecutive years in order to apply for a 20% property tax credit.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
White pills with copy space.
Opioid-related deaths may be dropping in Maryland, but experts say larger epidemic persists

Fatal drug overdoses dropped in the first half of the year around Maryland, including in Baltimore and five surrounding counties, reversing some of the jump during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, a state health official told a group of treatment providers and policymakers who gathered this week in Baltimore. The data was preliminary and could change but brought a bit of welcome news during what’s been a trying time for people with substance use disorders. There is still the problem, however, of the large number of people dying from overdoses. More than 1,200 died with opioids in their bodies between January and June in Maryland. Nationally, the opioid epidemic now claims more than 100,000 lives annually.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Baltimore’s supply of water treatment chemical reached ‘critically low level’ this June due to contract dispute, inspector general finds

Baltimore’s supply of a chemical needed to treat the city’s drinking water became dangerously low earlier this year as a result of a dispute between the city and a vendor, putting the city’s drinking water at risk of being undrinkable, according to a report released Tuesday by the city’s inspector general. According to the report, an unnamed vendor threatened to halt deliveries of the unspecified water treatment chemical to the city in June due to a disagreement about a proposed price increase. At the time, Baltimore owed more than $77,000 to the company in unpaid invoices, according to the report.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Waterfront Partnership announces holiday event series to activate Inner Harbor

Over the years, it’s felt like the Inner Harbor has lost some of its magic, according to Leanna Wetmore of the Waterfront Partnership. With a new event series, the organization aims to re-engage the harbor around the holidays and show it’s a fun place even in the cold. “We always say the harbor is where Baltimore greets the world,” said Wetmore, the group’s director of events and programs. “And we want the world to see who Baltimore really is.” The series, called “Winter on the Waterfront,” launches this week. It includes existing traditions such as the Inner Harbor Ice Rink, which will return this year to the Inner Harbor Amphitheater. The rink will be open from Nov. 11 until Jan. 16.

On Maryland’s 158th anniversary of emancipation, Annapolis recognized as slave port “site of memory”

Residents, local leaders and politicians crowded the church pews and walls of Asbury United Methodist Church in Annapolis Tuesday to recognize the city’s history as a slave port. The standing-room-only event, held on the 158th anniversary of emancipation in Maryland, was a celebration of Annapolis being designated as a “Site of Memory,” one of five locations in Maryland and 42 across the United States where enslaved Africans first arrived in the Americas. Residents, local leaders and politicians crowded the church pews and walls of Asbury United Methodist Church in Annapolis Tuesday to recognize the city’s history as a slave port. The standing-room-only event, held on the 158th anniversary of emancipation in Maryland, was a celebration of Annapolis being designated as a “Site of Memory,” one of five locations in Maryland and 42 across the United States where enslaved Africans first arrived in the Americas.

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